~ What you didn't know you needed to know.

Tag Archives: SQL

So you want to learn about all the things that you didn’t know you needed to know? I have a new one for you: SQL. What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language which allows you to access and manipulate databases. Okay so manipulating databases… that sounds interesting and like it could be potentially helpful. Let’s talk about what SQL allows you to do:

SQL can execute queries against a database

SQL can retrieve data from a database

SQL can insert records in a database

SQL can update records in a database

SQL can delete records from a database

SQL can create new databases

SQL can create new tables in a database

SQL can create stored procedures in a database

SQL can create views in a database

SQL can set permissions on tables, procedures, and views

RDBMS is Relational Database Management System and is the basis for SQL. All data in RDBMS is stored in tables, which is a collection of related data entries that consists of columns and rows.

Well this is nice. You learned something about SQL but what about putting that knowledge to work…. SQL can help you:

i.Determine the interests that are most highly correlated with your customer base

ii.Determine products which are most highly correlated with those interests

iii.Determine demographic differences between different site signups

iv.Analyze future sales based on first purchase

v.Find % of members who make a purchase right away

This is all extremely helpful information to those who want to have a more targeting marketing strategy, as it helps better target potential customers, as well as increase the speed of which a marketing campaign can run.

Who is using SQL? Companies who are ahead of the game and want to get answers and get them fast. SQL allows you to communicate directly with the database and therefore get helpful answers fast. In fact, many companies make sure that all their marketers are extremely familiar with SQL to ensure that their marketers can work at triple the speed.

Okay so all this talk about all these things that marketers need to know to get a job in the field…. talk about INTIMIDATING. On top of that now companies want us to be able to work at triple the speed? Well isn’t this just something to look forward to. Of course if you want to have a successful career then be ready! As they say, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Learning SQL will help make a marketers life so much simpler. Of course you are probably thinking that there are IT people for that. And of course that is true, and I am not telling you to go learn everything you possibly can about SQL but what I am telling you is that it will help marketers with analytics, as well as email marketing programs. As a marketer it’s always best to understand as much as the marketing process as possible and that’s what SQL will do. SQL will put another piece of the marketing puzzle together for you. This allows you to better understanding of all parts of the campaign including the outcome as well as help to design it. I think it will be important if you want to get a job, keep a job, and be successful. And after all isn’t that what we all want.